NAMM Leak – The Casio XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer

NAMM Leak: It looks like Casio will be announcing a return to the professional synthesizer market at the 2012 NAMM Show.

Reader aymat sent us this image of the Casio XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer. No official specs are available yet on the Casio XW-P1 synth, and the QR code links to a placeholder site.

Casio made a variety of synths and keyboards in the 80’s that could probably be considered ‘cult synths’. Several of their older synths are powerful, but none have achieved the revered status of synths from other companies.

The Casio XW-P1 is rumored to be a “lead and groove oriented hybrid synth” that will be priced around $700. If you click through to the full-size image, you’ll see hints that this may have both virtual analog and organ emulation capabilities.

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30 thoughts on “NAMM Leak – The Casio XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer”

So by the looks of things, the circa $700 price and the ‘hybrid’ descriptor… paltry front-panel control, and software editor over USB connection? I’m hoping that’s not the case, but… well, I’ll wait and see, but I’m not exactly holding my breath…

Casio cz101 was the first digital synthesiser I bought (345 quids worth )They where fantastic, they had a v small memory capacity but still a great synth. Mine lasted me in to the early 90s.
Casio cz101s, where used by many artists they where cheap and one of the most affordable polyphonics of their day. I look forward to seeing what Casio fetch out and it is high time they entered the market again. Hopefully it might nudge down the prices of other manufacturers too.
Cheap and nasty? I fuckin hope so, the electronic sophisticates’ make such bland shit music maybe this will inspire again.
Does anyone remember Vince Clarke on the cover of Music Technology, with I think six of them. Well done casio.

I started music with a casio cz-101 back in the early 90’s. I still feel if you can make new and interesting sounds on that lines of synths you can make them on anything! I hope they include phase distortion! A nice addition to the history of synthesizer synthesis, many of us out there cut our teeth on those early arcane casio synths. I still have fond memories of loosing hours of my life pushing that cz to the brink of collapse. I hope the continue that fine tradition of insanity. Maybe if this becomes successful, we might see a return of there small line of synths etc. But Im happy to see them return to the game, casio’s been missed!

I’m hoping for:
1. some sort of quirkiness I can’t accomplish on currently available synths.
2. a built-in step sequencer with per-step automation of all synth parameters.
3. some sort of hypersaw emulation
4. A more professional keybed/build quality than current casio keyboards.

I will be interested to see if this thing has a good build and steps outside the “dweedle factor” that made their earlier synths sound rather thin. Their pianos have been respectable, but the add-on sounds are merely serviceable, not memorable as we synth snobs know it. I owned a CZ-101 and used it as a module only, preserving its delicate construction. It was a fun bit o’ kit. If they have made good decisions and the new toy has some pro beef, it will deserve to do well. Their FZ-1 sampler was a real bargain, except it had the file-handling environment from Hell.

just had a 12 out in america ,the first track is called Phase Distortion and its on Phase distortion records.The first track uses a sample that pays homage to Phase Distortion synthesis.
Hope you like it all you cz freaks!!

I love casio’s for some reason. From the cheap casiotone’s to the real synths like the cz’s and ht’s, I have got quite a collection. I have very high hopes for this. It would be hilarious if it was a “real” synth but also had auto-accomp with bossa nova and rock presets etc : )

I too have quite a collection of Casios, from small ‘toys’ like the VL1 and MT 68 right up to the boss Casios: CZ-1, HT6000 and FZ20M. I like their underdog status, especially the way that synth snobs look down on them. Yet the CZ/ VZ/ FZ line are all incredibly powerful synths that can give very surprising and impressive results. Even the ‘lesser’ Casios can surprise, from the minuscule VL1 (with editable ADSR) to the CT410V (with onboard analogue filter!) and even the MT 68 which has some great 80’s style beatbox rhythms and beats. I should also add that the HT series can be great fun also – the baby HT 700, also with analogue filter, can sound really sweet when tweaked, and the bigger brother HT6000 with FOUR DCO oscillators, ring mod, detune etc. can give some great sounds also. Only downside is that Casio didn’t allow the HT series to drop down another octave or two to give them some decent bass. Never mind, the CZ’s can supply that by the bucketful!

Looking forward to seeing Casio come back into the semi-pro synth market again. If they get the features right (Phase Distortion modelling, real time editing/ manipulation of sounds etc.) they could be on to a winner. Oh, and they have to include some cheesy pre-programmed rhythms to keep us Casio faithful happy :-p

Oh, yes please, bring PD back! It’s about time after the renaissance of analog that we see some new unashamedly digital synths coming out. But if the new Casio keyboard is supposed to be a “groove and lead orientied” thingie I personally would not get my hopes up. Perhaps later …

So, the Roland Jupiter-80 comes out with more capability than this will have and everyone hates it with a seething passion, and then Casio, which has been only making amateur gear for a while, pipes in with a cheap-end synth which will probably have only a fraction of the capabilities of the Roland, yet there’s a love-fest going on?

Maybe i am wrong but I believe what you called “hate” came from the namesake. If that roland keyb was called Roland Duplikator 1, everyone would love it as a great rompler, motif killer, etc… but they did not, using instead their most valued brand name based on one of the most expensive ebay synth buy you can get. Jupiter 8 is a Cezanne, but better because you can touch it. So when I saw the name JUPITER 80, i thought “Wow 10 times the analog monster the J8 was at a price only a saudi prince could afford”.. But we got the Duplikator 1 with a sticker Jupiter 80 on top.

Do you actually have a brain?Are you mentally ill?Are you insane?Are you bipolar?Whatever the case may be…your a f**king retard.
The Jupiter-80 costs $3,000 more than the XW-P1,you f**king ass-wipe.The Jupiter-80 is the same price as the Korg Kronos 76-key and the Jupiter-80 is not even a workstation.
The Jupiter-80 is insanely overpriced for just a performance synth & it’s not even a true analogue synthesizer…THAT’S WHY SO MANY PEOPLE HATE IT.
Casio has been making gear for 30+ years and the reason people love & praise the XW-P1,is due to the fact that it’s an extremely fat,deep,& a very versatile keyboard and NOBODY HAS EVER MADE A SYNTH THIS NICE FOR $499-PERIOD!
A word of advice; PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND DO SOME RESEARCH FIRST,before you post.

My buddy has a mint CZ-1 with the original casio flight case, beautiful! in his Houston studio, It looks like I’ll be getting it for my birthday, since he has a hard time programing it! I’ll probably pee myself! My cz 101 died some time ago! To have a cz again! Will probably ruin my marriage! 🙂

The current Casio WK-7500 is one of the coolest “cheap” keyboards ever made. And tones can be edited extensively. And there’s a sequencer et al. Casio is a fun brand, and some of their stuff is really, really good. I’m looking forward to this.

It IS cool. It does have freaking good sounds and even organ model!!! But the tones canNOT be edited extensively. The synth part is horribly gimped compared to Casios own MZ-2000, which is practically Tyros before they the Tyros with Organ modelling and all, but with FAR better synth editing options!!! Very powerful beast, especially for the money. Casios price tag means more than every one elses proce tags! When Casio says 600$, others say 1200-1800$

I’ve been fixing my CZ-1000. I quite like PD and Casio’s 8-stage envelopes which allow you to do things like a sforzando with fake delay, something that ADSR synths can’t do with a single volume envelope (which makes it hard to recreate some CZ patches using Reason/Thor, for example.)

Ah! Those 8 stage env. ! They are a treat, but what I really loved them for, was that you really had th think about what you were doing as apposed to just tweaking analog and finding something cool. With the CZ line you “made” something cool! You really had to put in the elbow grease… No way around it! If your into synthesis sound design etc. It should be mandatory to own a cz. A CZ with a nice pallet of efx is a very powerful thing indeed( oh, and a sampler ).

Seriously folks, we are all interested in this because potentially it may have PD, if it doesn’t it runs the risk of being a disappointment right? If it doesn’t have PD initially Casio’s entry back into this space may mean we get it at some other time, either this has to be a good thing. Don’t compare the marketing or anything else to the JP80, that machine has a whole bunch of other perception and expectation issues associated with it.